A Liberal government under Justin Trudeau would fund abortion services under the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Initiative, something the Conservatives have refused to do since creating the program in 2010.

An official with knowledge of the topic tells iPolitics that the party would take a position starkly different from that of the current Stephen Harper government and ensure legal abortions are funded as part of the international program.

The Liberal platform, released last week, outlined the party’s position on foreign aid for maternal and child health but did not specifically mention the word ‘abortion.’

“We will also ensure that Canada’s valuable aid initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) is driven by evidence and outcomes, not ideology. Closing the existing gaps in reproductive rights and health care can save lives. We will cover the full range of reproductive health services as part of the MNCH initiatives,” reads the Liberal platform document.

When asked whether that pledge means a Liberal government would include abortion as part of the services Canada funds through the initiative, Liberal party spokesman Jean-Luc Ferland did not address the initiative specifically but said the Liberal party does support making legal abortions available to women.

“The Liberals absolutely support the full spectrum of reproductive health, including abortion where it is legal,” he said.

The Muskoka Initiative began in 2010 after Canada hosted the G8 summit and spearheaded an effort to get member and non-member countries to improve maternal and child health in developing nations.

Together, partner countries contributed $7.3 billion to the initiative through to 2015; last year, Harper announced the Canadian government had pledged an additional $3.5 billion over five years to keep funding programs aimed at preventing the deaths of mothers and children in the developing world until 2020.

But since its inception, critics — including U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former U.K. Secretary of State David Miliband, and the respected medical journal The Lancet — have said the initiative is flawed because it ignores the danger unsafe abortion services pose to women in the developing world.

They accounted for 13 per cent of all maternal deaths. Although the number of deaths from unsafe abortions has declined from 69,000 in 1990 to 47,000 in 2008, the WHO says the issue still poses “undue risk” to women.

“It is likely that the numbers of unsafe abortions will continue to increase unless women’s access to safe abortion and contraception – and support to empower women (including their freedom to decide whether and when to have a child) – are put in place and further strengthened,” the report says.

Harper has consistently said the government did not include abortion as part of the spectrum of family planning services it funds under the initiative because it would be divisive.

He repeated that claim when questioned by Trudeau and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair at the Munk Debate on foreign policy.

“You can’t go out in the world and unite the range of countries we have and independent and third party organizations, NGOs, that we have and get into that kind of a debate,” Harper said. “You need to concentrate on the things that unite people.”